The present invention relates to a process for forming a stack of sheets, one adhered to another, and to an apparatus for cutting web sheeting into a particularly shaped cut sheet to form the stack.
Repositionable sheets, such as the Post-it® brand notes, flags, tags, labels, and tape sold by 3M Company of St. Paul, Minn., are quite common and in everyday use. Such repositionable articles in familiar form are available in stacks or pads of sheets, one adhered to another. A repositionable note sheet has a first side which is partially coated with a repositionable pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) and a second side which, when viewed from that side, is either plain (no printing) or has a preprinted message or design thereon. Such a repositionable article is useful for calling attention to a particular section of a document, for marking a page in a document or book, or for leaving a removable and repositionable article that can be adhered to just about any clean surface.
Stacks of sheets using non-repositionable adhesive that is activated once an individual sheet is removed from the stack are available as well. Examples of such uses include, labels or tape using pressure sensitive adhesive which is non-repositionable.
Z-fold stacks of either notes or flags is one common method of stacking pads. A typical manner of packaging tape flags in a Z-fold fashion is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,320, which is incorporated by reference. Various other dispensable sheet material stacks are known in the art, including those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,416,392, 4,781,306, and 5,417,345, which are incorporated herein by reference. Z-folded tape flags, and other repositionable articles, include alternate sheets with adhesive adjacent a common edge and the remaining sheets have adhesive adjacent an opposite edge as the alternate sheets. Such Z-folded stacks are useful for dispensing repositionable articles in dispensers. Relative movement is afforded between a top wall of the dispenser and an uppermost sheet to afford, as the uppermost sheet is pulled through a dispensing slot, alignment of the slot with successive portions of the uppermost sheet toward a second end as the successive portions are peeled from the stack. In a final relative position between the top wall and the uppermost sheet, the dispensing slot is along the second end portion of that sheet and the first end portion of the underlying sheet to cause movement of the first end portion of the underlying sheets through the slot. The second end portion of the uppermost sheet leaves the first end portion of the underlying sheet projecting through the slot after the uppermost sheet is removed.
A process is desired in the art for forming a stack of sheets from a continuously running integral webs of material and processing directly into the shaped pad, rather than forming the pad and then cutting the pad to the desired shape.